Why is this happening?

Eeek. Does anyone have any idea why my computer tries to dial up to the internet while I'm in other programs on my desktop? I have noticed that for about a week now, my computer has been trying to access the web. For instance, I was just typing a doc in WORD and the Earthlink dial up screen came up. Can someone tell me how I can make it stop? I had a file sharing program installed, but I deleted it a few days ago. Could I have missed some kind of file or something?

Originally posted by ernieba1 Best bet? Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete and systematically delete every program until it stops happening.

That isn't a best bet. Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't keep anything from starting up. It merely turns off things that are running. A better bet would be to go to start --> run --> and type "msconfig" if you're running win98 or later. Click on the startup tab and uncheck everything you don't need (you need explorer and systray). If you don't know what it is...leave it checked. Reboot. If it still comes up, then start systematically unchecking and rebooting until it doesn't come up.

It sounds like it's an IM, but there are some viruses known to do that. Just to make sure that it isn't something simple - check what's in your start --> programs --> startup folder. If Netscape or IE is in there, that's your problem.

I am running a beta version of Win ME, and it was possesed for a while, automatically dialing to the Internet by itself. I wouldn't even be doing anything. Oddly enough, it just went away. Sorry to not have a solution for you, but at least you're not the only one.

Go to the Connections tab of your Internet Options. Is the "Dial whenever a network connection is not present" checked? If so, change the selection to "Never dial a connection." You could have a software that is trying to connect to the Internet.

Speaking of viruses and WinME, my roommate just did a scan of his computer with Norton AV and found not just 1 but 5 viruses on his computer! I'm surprised the thing was still running. Of course one was that evil SirCam virus and the other 4 were MS Word based viruses.